A cabin by the water,
where everything is on foot.
20 m² for two and a 10 m² wooden terrace above the harbour. The sea fifty steps below, five places to eat on foot, and the coastal path at the end of the lane.
A cabin, a terrace, a cove.
In Niolon, the road stops. You park once at the top of the village, walk down a pedestrian lane, and never touch the car again until you leave.
La Cabine is a fully renovated 20 m² cabin for two, with a sheltered 10 m² wooden terrace just above the little harbour. Fifty metres and about fifty steps below: a tiny beach, rock jetties to lay a towel on, and the quays of the little harbour where people swim exactly as the locals do.
We are Laurence and Jeremy. We have been renting this studio for more than ten years, and we still send our guests to Meissa and Zohra, to Arnaud, to Séverine — because that is precisely what makes Niolon what it is.
Why Niolon is different
Everyone knows Sormiou, Morgiou and En-Vau. Far fewer people know the Côte Bleue, west of Marseille — and yet this is where the calanques are greenest: pines running down to the water, dense scrubland, a coastal customs path that follows the shore for kilometres, and small fishing harbours that are still lived in. Visitors keep saying the same thing without consulting each other: it feels like Greece, it looks like Croatia.
And Niolon has something nowhere else here has: it is a dead end. The road goes down to the harbour and stops. No through traffic, no passing cars, nothing driving underneath your terrace. The village belongs only to the people who are in it.
Five places to eat and drink — one of them the village grocery, open from mid-April to mid-October — a tiny beach, and the coastal path starting at the end of the lane. You can spend a whole week here without using a car.
Twenty-three minutes by train.
Niolon station is 400 metres from the studio. The Côte Bleue railway line reaches Marseille Saint-Charles in about twenty-three minutes, running along the sea — one of the most beautiful train journeys in France.
Many of our guests arrive this way and never see a car all week. L’Estaque is five minutes away by train; from there, a boat shuttle takes you down to the Old Port of Marseille. Arrive by train, leave by boat.
Winter is our favourite season
The finest light of the year, an empty coastal path — and often far milder than people expect. There is also far less mistral than there used to be: most winter days here are simply calm and clear. In summer it is too hot to walk here, and access to the hills is regulated from 1 June to 30 September. In winter, the Côte Bleue is yours.
The studio is heated — reversible air conditioning, and the small volume warms up in minutes. The Auberge du Mérou stays open all year round. And thirty minutes away, the Carro spot comes into season: the mistral blows from October to April, which is exactly when wingfoilers, kitesurfers and windsurfers want to be here.
Two people, a terrace, a cove
The studio is available all year, from a weekend to a full month. Send us your dates — we answer personally, usually the same day.